Hair bows have been used for personal adornment by various cultures throughout the world and throughout the centuries. They are most typically used as a means of securing the hair in a neat fashion while at the same time enhancing the feminine appearance by the incorporation of a wide variety of colors, fabrics, materials, styles and sizes in the construction of the hair bow. The popularity and specific design of hair bows is greatly influenced by the hair and fashion industry. For this reason hair bows are constructed to complement hair and fashion trends as well as individual characteristics of the bow wearer.
To date, the design emphasis of hair bows has focused on the visual presentation of the bow. Hair bows are often worn to make a fashion statement, and through their visual presentation may reflect a specific "theme" based on the individual bow wearer's personal style, interests, or the event for which the bow is designed to be worn.
Many different bows have been designed to accomplish different tasks. Typical of the art are those bows disclosed in the following United States Letters Patents:
______________________________________ Pat. No. Inventor (s) Issue Date ______________________________________ 2,104,248 W. Stark Jan 4, 1938 2,105,436 G. Flatto Jan 11, 1938 3,630,810 V.D. Mauro Dec 21, 1971 4,339,059 D.A. Kenyon Jul 13, 1982 4,490,931 J.D. Fleemin Jan 1, 1985 4,525,393 P DiCostanzo Jun 25, 1985 4,608,771 S. Mehta Sep 2, 1986 4,882,966 B. Silverman Nov 28, 1989 4,923,721 W.M. Gilmore May 8, 1990 5,044,037 K.A. Brown Sep 3, 1991 5,100,706 L. Zaweski Mar 31, 1992 5,215,791 E.A. Davignon Jun 1, 1993 Des. 234,467 E.V. Del Grosso Mar 11, 1975 Des. 308,185 C.A. Valkner May 29, 1990 ______________________________________
Several of these patents disclose hair bows and ornamental bows for packages. Others disclose ornamental devices which incorporate conventional music producing devices. However, none of these discloses a bow including an audibly detectable message.
One deficiency of prior hair bow designs is that the extent to which a given theme can be expressed by a particular design of bow is limited when the representation of that theme is restricted to a single sensory modality the visual modality. This and other limitations experienced with the prior art design of hair bows have been obviated in a novel manner by the present invention.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to improve upon the current presentation of personal adornment accessories, namely ribbon, cloth, ceramic material, ceramic-like material, and plastic hair bows, by incorporating a novel acoustic device for producing music, songs, spoken words or sound effects.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a bow having an acoustic element wherein the sounds produced therein are selected with a particular theme in mind so that the acoustic aspect of the bow fully complements and augments the theme that is expressed by visual ornamental aspects of the bow.
Another object of the present invention is that while it augments the artistic, aesthetic, and message value (theme expression) of the bow, it also adds a multisensory or heightened sensorial experience component for both the wearer of the bow and the person viewing the bow by providing an intensified presentation of the bow theme through the stimulation of combined modalities.
A further object of the present invention is to provide greater direct enjoyment of the bow by the bow wearer once it has been placed in the hair.